Apparatus for applying ribbons at slits of clothings



May 7, 1968 M. I. DAVIDSON APPARATUS FOR APPLYING RIBBONS AT SLITS OF CLOTHINGS 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March '7, 1966 Fig.7

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APPARATUS FOR APPLYING RIBBONS AT SLITS OF CLOTHINGS Filed March 7. 1966 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 7 9 fimar INVEN TOR av w Awe 5/ @4/ fine I May 7, 1968 M. DAVIDSON 3,381,640

APPARATUS FOR APPLYING RIBBONS AT SLITS OF CLOTHINGS Filed March 7. 1966 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 mfln 47% IN VEN TOR B g f M. I. DAVIDSON May 7, 1968 APPARATUS FOR APPLYING RIBBONS AT SLITS OF CLOTHINGS Filed March 7. 1966 5 3 3 m 3 3 1P. 4 I a\9 2 2 4 4 3 H 4 4 I /II 8 7 2 2 4 3 2 g: F H IIARiIl E 4 INVENTOR lam/Maxi gd M M. I. DAVIDSCN May 7, 1968 APPARATUS FOR APPLYING RIBBONS AT SLITS 9F CLOTHINGS 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed March 7, 1966 INVENTOR United States Patent 3,381,640 APPARATUS FOR APPLYING RIBBONS AT SLITS OF CLOTHINGS Mats Ingvar Davidson, Nygarden, Ganghester, Sweden Filed Mar. 7, 1966, Ser. No. 532,170 9 Claims. (Cl. 112147) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An attachment for a sewing machine to apply a ribbon of textile material along the borders of a slit in clothing such as a shirt or blouse. Folding means are provided for folding the ribbon prior to being applied to the borders of the slit. The folding means has an open end in front of the presser foot of the sewing machine and has an inclined wall upon which the ribbon is placed extending longitudinally of the folding means. A horizontal groove is provided in the wall extending longitudinally thereof and a folding rail is movable transversely of the wall to cooperate with the groove so as to fold a ribbon when placed on such wall. The groove is also provided with spring biased means so as to grasp the ribbon firmly when folded. The folding rail is provided with spring biased means which may be operated by the knee of the operator.

The present invention has reference to an apparatus for applying a strip of textile material along the borders of a slit in a shirt, a blouse or the like.

An object of the invention is to provide an apparatus comprising a device which is open at least at one end for folding a rib of textile material in the longitudinal direction, said folding device adapted to be arranged with its opening end in front of the press foot of a shuttle sewing machine or a so called overlock sewing machine. The folding device is preferably provided with an inclining wall extending in the longitudinal direction of said device, with a horizontal groove in which a folding rail is movable from the side. The material ribbon may comfortably be inserted in such a folding device in flat state and with the folding device there is obtained a good guidance of the doubled material ribbon during its sewing along the borders of the slit.

A further object of the invention is to provide a holding needle in front of the sewing needle which is moved upwardly and downwardly in the work piece by the motor of the machine, which when the machine is arrested always stops in exactly the same position, viz. the position in which the holding needle is in its lower position. The work piece is swung about this holding needle when the needle has reached the inner end of the slit and thereupon the material strip is stitched to the opposite border of the slit.

The sewing machine is with advantage also provided with a cutting tool, e.g., a pair of scissors and one branch of this pair of scissors is adapted to be moved upwards and downwards with the retaining needle so as to cut away excess material at the longitudinal borders of the material ribbon.

The invention will now be elucidated with reference to the accompanying drawings which are intended merely to illustrate the invention and not to limit it. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an apparatus according to the invention,

FIGS. 2 and 3 show in perspective obliquely from above and from the left hand side the apparatus during stitching of a material ribbon doubled in the folding device to the borders of the sleeve slit of a shirt,

FIG. 4 shows on an enlarged scale a plan view partially in section of the folding device proper,

FIG. 5 shows on an even more enlarged scale a vertical section through the folding device upon inserting of a ribbon of a textile material in the same,

FIG. 6 shows the same vertical section but after the doubling of the ribbon,

FIG 7 is a side elevation of the sewing machine in the vicinity of its press foot at the beginning of the stitching of the ribbon,

FIG. 8 is a similar view showing when the sewing has been performed up to the inner end of the slit,

FIG. 9 is a front elevation of the portion of the sewing machine shown in FIGS. 7 and 8,

FIG. 10 is a plan view of the sleeve slit of a shirt before the attachment of the material ribbon,

FIG. 11 is a similar view after the attachment of the ribbon but before the overlapping of one of the borders by means of the pressing of the clothing, and

FIG. 12 shows on an enlarged scale a cross section through the slit taken along the line XII-XII in FIG. 11.

The apparatus shown in the drawings comprises two main portions, viz. a shuttle sewing machine or a so called overlock-machine 1 and a folding device 2.

The folding device 2 comprises a box-shaped stand 3 with a hub 4 arranged on the left hand side of said stand, said hub 4 passed through by a post 5 on a work table 6 arranged in front of the machine 1. The folding device 2 is adapted to be swung away to theleft from the operative position shown in FIG. 1 at need, The folding device 2 is provided with a longitudinal horizontal groove 7 open at both ends, one of these ends, in the operative position of the folding device (FIG. 1), being situated in front of the presser foot 8 of the sewing machine 1. The upper wall 9 of the groove 7 is stationary and continues via a wall portion 10 inclining obliquely upwards (to the left according to FIGS. 5 and 6) in an upper portion 11 which is attached by means of screws (not shown) to the upper portion 12 of the stand 3. The lower wall 13 of the groove 7 continues in an inclining wall portion 14 which forms an elongation directed downwards of the wall portion 10. At the lower border the wall portion 14 continues in a wall portion 15 extending obliquely upwards and to the right, said wall portion 15 being provided with a hub 16' passed through by a horizontal shaft 17. The unit 13, 14, 15 which thus can be swung about the shaft 17 is at its free border provided with an upwards directed wall portion 18 serving as a bottom in the groove 7 and a horizontal border flange 19. The flange 19 is passed through by a downwards directed tenon 20 provided with a lock nut 21 at the lower end. Between two washers 22 and 23 on the tenon 20 there is inserted a helical spring 24 which swings said unit in clockwise direction against an abutment in such a way that when the folding device is in inoperative position the lower groove wall 13 will be situated at a smaller distance from the upper wall 9. Into the space between the groove walls 9, 13, i.e., into the groove 7, there is by the action of a helical spring 26 horizontally displacea-ble a folding rail 27 which is attached with the rear border to a pair of posts 28 which at the lower ends are attached to a cross bar 29 between two parallel slides 30. The slides are horizontally slideable on two guide rods '31 which extend between the two side walls 32, 33 of the box-shaped stand 3. The Spring 26 is attached with one end to the cross bar 29 and with the other end to an upright pin 34 in the vicinity of the wall 32. To the cross bar 29 there is also attached one end of a rope 35, wire or the like which extends through an opening 36 in the wall 33 and which runs over a pulley 37 carried on the outside of this wall. The rope or the like further extends through a tube 38 which is directed obliquely downwards to the left through the table 6 and is with the other end attached to a lever 39 which at the rear end is journalled on a vertical pin 40 and at the front end is swingable by the left knee of the operator of the machine sitting in front of the same.

The inclined wall portion 14 is provided with two parallel slots 42 through each of which passes a clamping screw 43. These clamping screws 43 extend through a channel-shaped or box-shaped abutment rail 44 and the lower border of a textile ribbon 45 intended to be folded by means of the device 2 abutting against this rail 44 before the folding.

The folding proper is carried out in the following manner. When the lever 39 with the knee is swung to the left according to FIG. 4, the rope 35 pulls the slides 30 with the posts 28 and the folding rail 27 against the action of the spring 26 to the right (FIG. A textile ribbon 45 is then laid on the wall portions 16, 14 in such a way that the lower 'border abuts against the abutment rail 44. When thereupon the lever is allowed to return to the start position (FIG. 4), the folding rail 27 is displaced by the action of the spring 26 with its left hand border into the groove 7 and the ribbon 45 is doubled simultaneously as the lower groove wall 13 against the action of the spring 24 is pressed downwards. The unit 13, 14, 15, 18 and 19 is swung during the folding operation somewhat in a counter-clockwise direction about the shaft 17 and thus the ribbon 45 is for this reason under a slight spring pressure pressed between the folding rail 27 and the two groove walls 9, 13. The ribbon 45 is now in position to be sewn to the clothing in question. Due to the fact that the lower groove wall 13 can be swung downwards against the action of the spring 24 the folding device will be practically independent of the thickness of the ribbon 45.

In the feeding direction of the work piece 47 there is before the thread guiding needle 46 which is arcuate and adapted to stitch a Zigzag-seam on the work piece, a holding needle 48 driven vertically up and down by the motor of the machine in synchronism with the thread guiding needle but timed during operation to be in an upper position withdrawn from the work piece when the thread guiding needle 46 is in a lower position penetrating the work piece and in front of this needle 48 there is arranged a cutting tool, such as a movable branch 49 of a pair of scissors with the other branch 50 stationary and situated with its cutting edge 51 level with the presser foot 8. The holding needle 48 and the movable cutting branch 49 are together arranged on a head 52 which is reciprocated by the motor of the machine. The motor (not shown) is of the type in which the rotor always stops at exactly the same place and the head 52 is arranged in such a way that each time the machine is stopped the holding needle 48 is in its lower position penetrating the work piece 47 and the thread guiding needle 46 is raised to an upper position in a conventional manner whereby the work piece can be swung about the holding needle 48 as desired.

When the textile ribbon 45 has been folded in the folding device 2 and is doubled as shown in FIG. 6 with the end 53 of the ribbon projecting outside the open end of the groove 7, this open end being situated in front of the presser foot 8, where the folding rail 27 is provided with a guiding tongue 54, one border 55 of the sleeve slit 56 is laid on a shirt sleeve 47 in such a way that the border portion 55 together with the ribbon 45 is moved in common in under the presser foot 8. The machine is started and the ribbon 45 is automatically pulled out of the groove 7 and stitched to the border portion 55 with the doubled portion of the ribbon turned away from the slit. The excess portion 57 (FIG. 9) of the ribbon is automatically cut away by the pair of scissors 49, which may comprise two cooperating cutting edges. The sewing continues to the inner end 58 of the slit 56 where the machine is stopped. In this position (FIG. 9) the holding needle 48 penetrates down into the work piece 47 and the ribbon 45. For this reason it is easy to swing the work piece about this place in such a way that the opposite border portion 59 of the slit is situated in the longitudinal direction of the groove 7 and of the border portion already prepared and the machine is thereupon started again and the ribbon is stitched also to the border portion 59. The slit 60 thus prepared is shown in FIGS. 11 and 12. The zigzag-seam has here been denoted with reference letter 61. The clothing is then pressed in such a way that the portions of the ribbon 45 extending along the border portions 55 and 59 will overlap each other. The cuffs of the shirt (not shown) are applied in a common way.

By means of the adjustment of the abutment rail 44 in vertical direction it is rendered possible to arrange the ribbon 45 (FIG. 5) in such a way that the folding rail 27 will hit the ribbon approximately at its centre.

Due to the clamping of the doubled textile material, the ribbon 45, with some friction between the walls 9 and 13 as well as between the free border of the folding rail 27 and the upright wall 18 there is obtained the necessary guidance of the ribbon during its stitching to the work piece 47.

The invention has been described in the aforegoing for purpose of illustration only and is not only intended to be limited by this description or otherwise except as defined in the appended claims. Thus the different portions of the sewing machine 1 as well as of the folding device 2 may be constructively modified in many ways without departure from the inventive idea. This is true in particular forthe means serving for the displacement of the folding rail 27 into the groove 7.

What I claim is:

1. An attachment for a sewing machine having a presser foot and sewing needle to apply a ribbon of textile material along the borders of a slit in clothing, comprising folding means for folding said ribbon having an open end, means for mounting said folding means with said open end in front of said presser foot, said folding means comprising an inclined wall extending longitudinally of said folding means having a horizontal groove extending longitudi tally of said wall, and a folding rail movable transversely of said wall cooperating with said groove for folding a ribbon into said groove when placed on said wall to be applied to said borders.

2. An attachment as set forth in claim 1 including a lever pivotally mounted at one end upon the sewing machine so as to be operable by the knee of an operator and means connecting said lever to said folding rail.

3. An attachment as set forth in claim 2 including a spring biasing said rail against the action of said lever.

4. An attachment as set forth in claim 1 including two walls forming said groove and spring means acting to bias one of said walls towards the other wall.

5. An attachment as set forth in claim 4 wherein said spring biased wall has a flange forming the bottom of said groove.

6. An attachment as set forth in claim 1 including a vertical pin fixed to said sewing machine rotatably mounting said folding means.

7. An attachment as set forth in claim 1 including an adjustable rail mounted on said inclined Wall to accommodate different widths of ribbon.

8. An attachment as set forth in claim 1 including a holding needle adjacent said presser foot and in front of said sewing needle so that the workpiece may be turned when said sewing machine is stopped with the holding needle in a workpiece penetrating position and said sewing needle is in a raised position.

5 9. An attachment as set forth in claim 8 further in- 1,959,121 eluding cutting means adjacent said presser foot and said 2,525,858 holding needle. 2,534,204 2,725,836 References Clted 5 2999575 UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,416,998 5/1922 Thomas et a1. 112--l47 1,946,359 2/1934 Riviere 112-136 Allen 112--147 Boothroyd 11237 Ruskowski 112--37 Gillum et a1. 112147 XR Schwab 112219 XR JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

H. HAMPTON HUNTER, Examiner. 

